Monet's Palette — Jean Sheldon

After years of struggle, artist Rayna Hunt finds success within reach only to have an accident destroy the hand that guides her brush. Unable to paint, she uses settlement money from the accident to buy a small warehouse and converts it to a classroom studio and a home for her and her daughter. For three years, she teaches others to paint and ignores the reality that without the color and light she lives to create, her spirit grows thin. Her daughter recognizes the emotional devastation and begins a successful crusade to convince her to paint.

As she retrains the damaged hand, Rayna finds her usually quiet life disrupted when she becomes a suspect in a forgery case. Her class, a diverse group of ages and personalities, takes more than a casual interest. They, along with friends, Stratford Museum director and previous romantic interest Paul Lingstrum, and a Chicago Police detective recovering from her own loss, work to prove her innocence and solve the crime.